Apparatus for preparing freshly spun cakes of rayon for aftertreatments



Dec. 27, 1955 w. v. HENRY 2,728,529

APPARATUS FOR PREPARING FRESHLY SPUN OF RAYON FOR AFTERTREATMENTS (I Filed NOV. 15, 1950 40 fi [J5 2 4/ 45 /5 IXIIIBIG INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent APPARATUS FOR PREPARING FRESHLY SPUN GATES OF RAYON FOR AFTERTREATMENTS William V. Henry, Candler, N. (1., assignor to American Enka Corporation, Erika, N. C., a corporation of Delaware Application November 15, 1950, Serial No. 195,879

1 Claim. (Cl. 24255) The present invention relates to an apparatus for preparing freshly spun cakes of rayon for aftertreatments and more particularly to an apparatus for inserting an expansible member into a viscose rayon cake to function as a protection during the subsequent handling involving liquid aftertreatments.

Normally, freshly spun cakes of rayon are either subjected to a lacing operation such as is shown in United States Patent No. 1,988,778, or to a socking operation such as that shown in United States Patent No. 2,418,657. Both of these systems are more or less complicated and time consuming and it has been proposed to insert an expansible member into the inside of an acid rayon cake immediately after formation in lieu of the foregoing. This proposal is disclosed and described in application Serial No. 107,128, filed July 27, 1949, now Patent No. 2,645,554, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application. The present invention constitutes an improvement over the invention described in said application in providing an improved apparatus for inserting the expansible member within the hollow interior of the freshly formed cake.

It is an object of this invention to provide a device for the quick and convenient insertion of an expansible cloth protective member Within the hollow interior of a cake of rayon.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof in conjunction with the annexed drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of the apparatus employed for coiling a permeable resilient member to be inserted within a cake of rayon;

Figure 2 is a view in section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the coiling spiral which winds the resilient member to a diameter sufliciently small to permit insertion in the hollow interior of a cake.

Referring now in greater detail to the drawings, the numeral represents an elongated spiral of stiif sheet material such as sheet metal having at its outer end a guiding lip 11 and being at its inner end attached to a bar 12. The bar 12 is mounted in bearings 13 and 14 which are in turn mounted on standards 15 and 16 extending upwardly from a work table 17. Between the bearings 13 and 14, a sprocket wheel 18 is attached to the shaft 12 and over this sprocket wheel there passes a chain 19, one end of which is connected to a spring 26 which in turn is connected to a brace 21 which extends between and is fastened to the legs of the table 17.

The other end of the chain 19 is pivotally attached at 22 to a foot lever 23 which is pivotally connected at 24 to a rod 25 which extends between the legs of the table 17.

It is now apparent that by stepping on the treadle 26 of the foot lever 23, the spiral 10 is caused to rotate in a counterclockwise direction as it is viewed in Figure 2. This rotation is accompanied by elongation of spring 20 so that when the operators foot is removed from the treadle 26, the energy stored in the spring 20 returns the spiral to the normal position shown in Figure 2 which, of course, results in clockwise movement from the po- 2,728,529 Patented Dec. 27, 1955 sition which the spiral assumes when the treadle is depressed.

In operation a piece of cloth of the type shown in Figure 1 of Patent No. 2,645,554, i. e., a normally fiat liquid permeable piece of cloth of rectangular shape having each long edge bound over a flexible spring-like wire, is held with a short edge facing the mouth of the spiral 10. Thereupon, the spiral is rotated in the counterclockwise direction as it is viewed in Figure 2, thus wrapping the cloth into a spiral shape within the spiral 10. To effect this Wrapping, the operator simply holds the cloth by the ends of the opposite long edges adjacent the short edge which is fed into the mouth of the spiral 10, and the rotation of the spiral 10 forms the cloth into a spiral shape.

With the cloth wound into the spiral 10, the operator next places a cake of rayon over the spiral 10 and releases the treadle while again grasping the same part of the opposite long edges of the cloth. This results in an unwinding of the cloth and the resilient wire edges will cause it to engage firmly the inner walls of the cake in which it has been inserted.

The dimensions of the spiral 10 have not been given, but it will be understood that the spiral is of a length slightly greater than the height of the cake which it is to serve. Likewise, it is apparent that the overall diametrical dimension of the spiral must be less than the core diameter of any cake with which it is used. The total internal length of the spiral must be slightly greater than the length of the cloth to be wound. The spiral angle must be of sufiicient magnitude that succeeding coils of the spiral are spaced apart sufiiciently to accommodate the cloth protective member.

What is claimed is:

An apparatus for preparing a freshly spun cake of rayon for liquid aftertreatrnents which comprises an elongated rotatable tubular spiral of rigid sheet material having an unsupported guiding lip on its outer end, the width of said sheet material being slightly greater than the height of said cake and the overall diametrical dimension of said spiral being less than the core diameter of said cake, a shaft connected to the inner end of the spiral, treadle means to rotate the shaft in one direction and means actuated by said treadle means to rotate the shaft in the opposite direction whereby when the short edge of a normally flat liquid permeable rectangular member having its long edges bound over with flexible wire, is inserted in the outer end of the spiral and the spiral is rotated in a direction toward the member, the member itself will be wrapped in spiral form and when the cake of rayon is deposited over the rigid spiral of sheet material and the direction of rotation reversed while holding the spiralled member stationary, the flexible wire edges of the member will cause it to uncoil,

expand and firmly engage the interior of the cake.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 243,901 Horton July 5, 1881 1,159,781 McCoy Nov. 9, 1915 1,191,166 Elliot et al. July 18, 1916 1,730,799 Bowes Oct. 8, 1929 1,790,218 Appleby Jan. 27, 1931 1,941,022 Shelley Dec. 26, 1933 2,175,516 Bugatti Oct. 10, 1939 2,221,265 Rinard et al Nov. 12, 1940 2,232,763 Becher Feb. 25, 1941 2,298,183 Susan Oct. 6, 1942 2,301,984 Turubull Nov. 17, 1942 2,509,708 Tornquist May 30, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 502,780 Germany July 16, 1930 

